Alan Hayashi’s 120-hectare (300-acre) farm is an unassuming pillar of Arroyo Grande, a city on California’s central coast that’s covered by rolling vineyards and ancient oaks. Two vast fields, partitioned by an inland stretch of Highway 1, produce white strawberries, squash, beets, celery and two dozen other crops.
Hayashi, who’s up at dawn seven days a week, has devoted the better half of his life to the farm’s upkeep: he plants, irrigates and harvests his crops, the roar of rushing traffic an untiring companion. He also packages and sells the goods at his roadside stand and different farmers’ markets in San Luis Obispo county. On a good day, he’ll wrap up by 6pm and return home for dinner.
